This love should have come with a guide!
by genibeechan
Summary: As far as gray is concerned, dating any of the girls in fairy tail is out of the question. However, the guys are another story. Of course, he's too stubborn to actually admit how he feels to the fire dragon slayer, and Natsu is too oblivious to notice it on his own. Luckily, Lucy is willing to force the two together whether they like it or not!
1. Chapter 1

A/n- Alright, so this is my very first fairy tail fanfiction, and it's going to be a part of a series that focuses on each pair that I'll be using in it! take note that more pairings will be added later, most likely! this story will also be posted on my ao3 account, however it will probably be updated faster on there than it is here.

Gray leaned back against his chair, barely listening to the conversations around him at the guildhall. This was mostly due to the fact that he was trying to block out Juvia and her incessant praise that, of course, left him annoyed and uncomfortable. Mira watched the two and laughed a little as she walked over to them.

"Gray, I'm curious. You don't seem to show any interest in Juvia and I've never seen you with any girls at the guild. Do you already have a girlfriend or something?" She asks, ignoring the heartbroken pout that this statement gets out of Juvia. Gray shakes his head coolly.

"Nah, it's nothing like that. I'm just not attracted to any of the girls here in that way. I grew up with them, ya know. I pretty much consider them all to be like sisters" He shrugs. Juvia looks at Gray with a small smile.

"Me, too?" she asks a little quietly. Much different than her usual praise and adoration.

"Yeah, you too. You haven't been here for as long, but you're like family" Gray nods. This makes Juvia's smile grow. He may not love her in the way that she had wanted, but at least he cared.

"Well you're not interested in any girls here, so I'm guessing the same goes for the men in our guild, right?" Mira asks with a small laugh. Gray had been open with the guild when he realized his sexuality, and of course they accepted him. Especially considering he wasn't the only one.

"I never said that" Gray's eyes strayed and he stared at the ground while Mira and Juvia just gasped a little.

" So you still have a crush on someone in the guild?" Juvia asked, a spark of interest lighting her eyes.

"Oh, who is it?" Mira asks quickly.

"Not a chance, Mira. Remember when Levy came to you talking about Gajeel? You blabbed about the entire conversation to him!"

"Hey, they're in a happy relationship now thanks to me!" Mira retorts and laughs a little.

"Sorry, but I already know for a fact that he has not interest in me" Gray says. And before he had even finished the sentence he felt himself ripped from his seat.

"Ice princess, right now. I'm challenging you to a fight!" Natsu yells yells, this wasn't fueled by anger, they hadn't fought recently. But it seemed that Natsu was simply itching to brawl, which he would happily deliver. 'At least he isn't interested in me romantically, I should say' Gray chuckles at that thought.

"You're on, flame for brains" Gray springs out of his chair. And the two immediately begin, knowing that Erza would end their fight soon. Of course, before the requip wizard was able to intervene, Natsu and Gray had been able to dish out a ton of bruises. Erza pulled the two apart giving them each a glare, and gave most of her anger towards Natsu, knowing he started the fight.

Gray smirks as he was able to slip away, and out of the guild. He was walking back towards his apartment when he heard footsteps behind him.

"Gray, wait!" Juvia ran after gray.

"What is it?" he turned towards her, to see his shirt in her hand. Taking a look down he groaned, seeing that he had, in fact, stripped again.

"Sorry, Juvia" he grabbed his shirt and pulled it on. The two walked together for a while before Juvia broke the silence.

"I was wondering if your crush is Natsu." she says this simply and straightforward. Gray's face paled.

"How on earth were you able to catch that? Does anyone else think that?" Gray's heart beat a mile a minute. He'd never be able to face Natsu if someone leaked that to him. The humiliation from being rejected would be too much. The ice mage had gone through so much trouble to hide the specifics of who he was interested in over the years. How could she have-

"I watch you a lot, it was hard to see, but the way you look at him is different than the way you look at other people. I never thought it was a crush until you talked to Mirajane." Juvia rubs the back of her head slightly embarrassed.

"Well, I do. I've never really been interested in anyone else. Romantically at least. Just please don't tell anyone" Gray admits with a shrug. Juvia nods at this in understanding.

"Well, I can keep your secret" she smiles "and for the record, I think you were wrong"

"What?" Gray raises an eyebrow

"I think Natsu is interested in you. As more than just a rival at least." Juvia explains.

"Thanks, but I don't think that's true. He's never showed interest in men and he's been getting really close with Lucy lately. I think they're in a relationship" Gray sighs.

Juvia shakes her head "You didn't know? Lucy is in a relationship with Loke"

"Really? When did that happen?" Gray stops, brow furrowing.

"A couple weeks ago. They're discreet, but they don't hide it. I saw them kissing once when they thought no one was looking." Gray smiles a little.

"Well, if that's the case then at least I don't have a reason to feel jealous of Lucy"

"Natsu, you really should just-"

"No."

"But you're being childish-"

"No."

"Would you just listen to me? This is stupid!"

"Lucy, I said no!" Natsu huffs. Happy looks between the pair and sighs

"There's no getting through to him, he's crazy"

"Look, Natsu. You told me already that this wouldn't have happened if it weren't meant to be!" Lucy shakes her head with a huff. After the fight had gone down, Natsu got his ass handed to him by Erza, and Lucy dragged him to her apartment, Lucy confronted the dragonslayer about his complicated relationship with Gray.

"That's not true! Sure, dragonslayers mate for life and all, and they have a predestined mate, however that doesn't necessarily mean that they don't become infatuated with others before they meet their mate. Those relationships are doomed to fail." Natsu growls in annoyance.

"Man up, Natsu! There would be no better match for you than someone in this guild." Lucy retorted. The two had spent most of their time together speaking of the dragonslayer's knowledge of mates once he had admitted to her his feelings for Gray.

"And if I'm wrong I lose him as a friend and as a rival. I complicate our relationship."

"If you're right you sacrifice giving affection to someone you're bound to care deeply for"

"What if I'm willing to?"

"What if Gray doesn't want to be alone?" Lucy's voice becomes more serious at this point. "Look, as you told me. The first time you and your true mate sleep together, you'll know for sure. Right?"

"Igneel didn't go very far into detail, but he said there would be no denying it" Natsu sighs.

"Ugh. Dragonslayers are so complicated! Why couldn't it just be a kiss! That's much more innocent and could easily be forgotten had it not been your real mate" Lucy groans.

"Well i still care deeply for gray, I refuse to lose him just because I was wrong" Natsu sighs.

"I wonder if there's any more to this than Igneel told you."

Natsu shrugs. He had confronted Gajeel about it, but apparently he was never even informed about dragonslayer mating until it had happened to him, so he had no reason not to date Levy. Of course, Lucy had initially believed that this seemed just like how normal people would date, but Natsu quickly explained that if he knew that someone wasn't his mate directly after sleeping with them, then he would have no reason to stay with them.

"Well, maybe Wendy knows something" Lucy shrugs and Natsu bursts into laughter.

"If ironhead didn't know a thing I'm sure Wendy wouldn't!" he laughs. Lucy rolls her eyes.

"Well, we should do something today. To get our minds off of this" the celestial mage suggests. Natsu nods in agreement.

"Let's take a job. I know you're behind on jewel for rent anyways" Lucy laughs nervously at this but the two walk back to the guild together.

When the two wizards arrived at the guildhall they picked a job that would take them a couple days and pay well.

"Well, we don't leave until tomorrow morning, so why don't we just take it easy until then" Natsu shrugs, Lucy nods. This job was just to simply to act as security guards for a party that a very wealthy family was throwing.

"You know, we could get the rest of our team to go along" Lucy suggests with a smile.

"That's counter productive!" Natsu frowns.

"Are you guys talking about a job? Can I come?" Wendy's voice rings out from behind them and Lucy looks to Natsu who shrugs.

"It'll just be us three, Carla, and Happy then" Lucy says

"We have to meet at the train station early tomorrow, so don't be late" Lucy smiles and skips off.

The next morning, Natsu sluggishly wakes to leave for the train station. With Happy following behind him, he approaches the station to see Wendy had already arrived.

"Where's Lucy?" Natsu asks, looking around.

"She's not here yet. But I'm betting she'll arrive within the next couple minutes"

"Lucy won't be coming on this job" both Wendy and Natsu look over their shoulders to see none other than Gray striding towards them.

"What, why not?" Wendy asks with a hint of concern.

"She just told me she was feeling sick. She asked me to come in her place" Gray shrugs.

'Smart Lucy, but Wendy is still-'

"Maybe I should stay behind with her, my magic might be able to help her" Wendy says quickly. Natsu's eyes widen.

"N-no! I'm sure Lucy will be fine, you should just let her rest. We could really use you" Natsu blurts out quickly. Lucy had to have planned this! But he wouldn't let her get her way.

"Really?" Wendy's face lights up. "Well, maybe I'll check on her when we get back then"

"Don't bother. She didn't even seem sick when I had spoken to her, my guess is she just wanted to get out of it" Gray rolls his eyes. Wendy laughs and looks at Natsu with an expression that told him she understood his hesitation to let her leave.

Natsu lets out a sigh of relief, he had just avoided an extremely awkward situation.

The group boarded the train and as usual, Natsu's motion sickness got the best of him. He sat miserably leaning out the window. Happy sat next to the fire mage and patted his back.

"Don't worry, Natsu. This train ride isn't too long" he laughs.

Natsu groans in response.

"So, did Lucy fill you in on what we'll be doing?" Wendy asks, turning to Gray.

"Not really, she only claimed to be sick and asked if I could take her place. I figured you guys could fill me in"

"Well, it's simple. We just have to act as security guards at a party and prevent any suspicious activity" Carla speaks up.

"Sounds easy enough, but I don't see why I was necessary for this"

"Looks like Lucy was trying to force you and Natsu to spend time with each other" Wendy snickers.

"Why the hell would she do that?" Gray questions

"Maybe you should ask Natsu" Wendy shrugs nonchalantly.

The ice mage turns to his mentioned teammate, who hadn't been paying attention to their conversation, and turned back.

"Something tells me that he won't be useful for questioning" Gray rolls his eyes.

The team makes it to the hotel they would be staying in during the one night wait before the party, finding that there were two rooms, one for Wendy and Carla, and the other for Gray, Natsu, and Happy.

Given that each room had two beds, happy and Natsu had quickly opted to share a bed while the ice mage had his own.

That night while everyone had been asleep, Natsu had been kept up by his anxious feelings. He could only hope that this issue would blow over, of course, Lucy would most likely force him to spend time with Gray the moment she found out her plan failed. Natsu groans at that thought and rolls onto his side. It looked like he wasn't getting out of this situation, whether that was good or bad for him he couldn't tell so soon.

'Damn it, Lucy, I hope you know what you're doing' he sighs and closes his eyes. All he could hope is that he wouldn't mess things up between himself and Gray.


	2. Chapter 2

a/n- Sorry that this chapter took so long to post! I had written the entire chapter out and hated it so I started all over and I'm much happier with the result now. The next chapter should be posted some time this weekend!

The team meets up with their employer the next day. The girl who had put out the request was about to celebrate her engagement and her family didn't expect that there would be any trouble, however just like with all large celebrations, it's wise to have security guards in the event that something goes wrong. Wendy, Natsu, Gray, Carla, and Happy stand in the middle of a large ballroom which is where the party is to be held. A tall young woman with short black hair and calm blue eyes. She smiles at the group before speaking.

"Thank you, fairy tail wizards. I am glad you have responded to the request. My name is Mitsuko, it's a pleasure to meet you" The woman says.

"It's no problem. All we have to do is beat up any idiots that try to cause problems, right?" Natsu gives a determined grin.

"Well, that's one way to put it" Mitsuko nervously laughs.

"Sorry about him, we won't cause any disruptions to your party" Gray interjects.

"Yeah, just leave this all to us!" Wendy chimes in. Carla blinks and crosses her arms, her face contorts into an expression of concentration, catching Happy's attention.

"Is something wrong, Carla?" He asks, she shakes her head simply as Mitsuko guides Wendy, Natsu, and Gray at two of the entrances. Wendy and Natsu at one door, and Gray, Happy, and Carla at another. The party began soon after with people filling into the room and dancing.

Wendy and Natsu sat together, watching for any sort of behavior that could be considered suspicious. So for the majority of the time, they just sat and talked with each other.

"So, Natsu. How long do you expect to be able to keep gray from knowing that he's your mate?" Wendy asks suddenly with a teasing tone.

"How did you even know about that?" Natsu gasps "What is it with you girls and being so interested in my love life?"

"Well, when I first realized you two were mates I thought you just didn't realize it yet, so I didn't say anything. But when I realized Lucy was trying to force you together like this, I figured you must be resisting" the girl laughs.

"What do you mean when you first realized? I didn't know there was any way to tell until after officially mating"

"Well, not early on, there isn't. Didn't Igneel ever explain it to you?" Wendy raises an eyebrow.

"No, he didn't tell me anything about that. You mean to tell me that Grandeeney explained this to you?" Natsu asks.

"Well, yeah. She told me I wouldn't have to worry about it for a long time, but as far as how I knew, it's a lot easier for you to know whether or not he's your mate than it is for me. I only noticed because lately you've been spending a lot more time around him. And when we go on jobs you're a lot more protective than usual" Wendy shrugs.

"Awe man, I thought it wasn't obvious" Natsu groans.

"It really isn't. I just knew what to look for!"

"Does this mean I have to tell him?" Natsu asks

"Well if you don't, your instincts will!" Wendy rolls her eyes.

"What?"

"You'll eventually be even more clingy and protective whether you like it or not," she explains. "Honestly, the fact that you two are mates means he must feel the same, so you're just being childish on putting it off and avoiding it"

"Wow, I never expected you to know so much about this stuff!" Natsu's eyes widen.

"I guess that's understandable. I am pretty young" Wendy scratches the back of her head.

Gray, Happy, and Carla had been sitting near the entrance they were instructed to keep watch over simply watching the crowd of people when Carla decided to voice her concerns.

"I have a bad feeling that something bad is going to happen soon." she admits "I didn't want to say anything in front of Mitsuko, though"

"Do you think Mitsuko lied and really had expected trouble?" Happy asks and Carla shakes her head.

"No, I don't think it's anything like that. What reason would they have to lie to us? I simply didn't want to worry her." Carla sighs "But I saw something, in the future there'll be some weird magic energy released. But that's all I saw"

"I'm sure it's nothing I can't handle. We'll just have to wait and find out" Gray doesn't lift his gaze from the clusters of people.

"Yes, I guess you're right" Carla nods. Happy laughs and looks at Gray.

"So, any idea why Lucy wanted to force you and Natsu together?" Happy asks with a playful smile

"No clue, unless she's trying to get us to cooperate and stop our fighting like Erza always does" Gray shrugs 'of course, it's possible that she figured out how I feel about him. But that's highly unlikely' he adds in his head. Lucy didn't seem like she noticed anything odd. If she did she probably would have confronted one of the two about it. And had she mentioned anything to Natsu, the odds of him believing it were slim.

"Are you sure that's the only reason you can think of?" Happy smiles mischievously

"What are you saying, cat?" Gray narrows his eyes. "Do you know something I don't?" he asks with an annoyed tone

"Nothing you won't find out soon enough." Happy waves a paw dismissively and tries to hold back laughter

"Spill it!"

"I'll never do such a thing! You'll just have to wait and see."

"Then why did you mention anything at all?"

"Because it's fun to mess with you!"

"Why you little-"

"Would you two knock it off? Haven't you noticed anything strange?" Carla cuts in

"What is it, Carla?" Happy asks.

"That strange energy that I was talking about. It's nearby" she says

"Happy, go tell Natsu and Wendy that we're going to investigate. Carla and I will go find out what's going on" Gray says

"Aye!" Happy flies off towards Natsu and Wendy while Gray and Carla walk out into a large hall.

"The energy is faint, but it's coming from over this way" Gray walks further into the hall with Carla following behind. As they move down the corridor the energy force seems stronger. And at the end of the hallway a mage in a dark cloak stands with a magic circle out in front of them.

"Who are you? This area is supposed to be off limits" Gray says and the mage simply smirks at him. The circle sends a dark green and black wave towards Gray and he instantly collapses upon impact, falling unconscious. Carla's eyes widen at the sight and she quickly lifts Gray, flying back towards Wendy and Natsu. Those two could handle this better than she could alone. The moment she explains what happen Natsu races off to find the mage, while Happy and Carla finds Mitsuko to tell her what happened. Wendy stays put by Gray's side as she tries to use her sky magic to heal any injuries he had acquired.

"Wendy, is he going to be alright?" Natsu asks as he runs back.

"It's strange, but he doesn't seem to be injured. From what I can tell, the magic only knocked him out" She explains.

"They must have used their magic to escape once he found them, I couldn't find a trace of them by the time I got there. I wonder what it is that they were up to." Natsu growls.

"Either way, we should be more careful from now on." Wendy looks at Gray with concern written all over her face. Carla and Happy fly back to the trio after they had found Mitsuko.

"Mitsuko would like us to explain what happened after the party is over." Happy explains.

"Reasonable enough" Natsu says and looks over to Gray. "I'll have to make them pay for what they did, though."

"How are you gonna do that if we don't even know who did it?" Happy asks

"I don't know, but something tells me that this isn't the last we'll be seeing of them" Natsu replies and sits next to Gray. Not too long after he begins to stir as he awakens. He groans out of discomfort and opens his eyes.

"Natsu?" He asks, as the first thing he sees is the dragonslayer sitting next to him.

"Hey, droopy eyes" Natsu teases.

"Agh, I got a killer headache" the ice mage sits up, holding his head in his hands.

"Did you happen to see who it was that attacked you?" Carla asks

"No, they were wearing a hood, so I couldn't really see their face well from where I was" Gray responds, rubbing his head.

"Well, at least they didn't hurt you" Wendy smiles optimistically

"Yeah, I guess that's a plus" Gray shrugs

"What a coward, all they did was run away" Natsu hisses, both angry about the fact that he missed a fight, and that this mage had the guts to attack Gray.

"Thank you so much for your help. I'm so sorry that your friend got hurt in the process" Mitsuko apologizes sincerely as she pays the group.

"It's no problem, but if there's any more trouble don't hesitate to contact us. I have a score to settle with that coward" Natsu grins.

"Thank you, I'll be sure to consider that" Mitsuko laughs as the group departs. They would leave the next morning, so they had one more night to stay in the hotel.

"Well, now that that's taken care of we can finally relax" Wendy smiles as the group walks to their hotel rooms. "Well, have a nice night, you guys" Wendy walks into her room with Carla and closes the door behind them.

Natsu, Gray, and Happy walk into their own room and get settled in for the night when Gray remembered something.

"Oh yeah. Natsu, what's the reason had me come on this job with you, Happy won't tell me" he says

"Happy, why'd you go and bring that up?" Natsu groans in annoyance

"Because you were taking too long!" Happy pouts.

"Taking too long for what?" Gray questions

"Ah. Well Lucy wanted to force us to spend time with each other" Natsu scratches the back of his head, staring off at a wall.

"That's pretty much what I had assumed" Gray shrugs

"Well, she did it because she was tired of waiting for me to tell you…" Natsu trails off

"Tell me what? Just get to the point, Natsu" Gray sighs

"Tell you that you're my mate"

a/n- If you are asking yourself whether or not I am truly evil enough to end the chapter here, yes, yes I am. Ok, I really am sorry, but if i had added the next scene, it would have made the chapter far too long! But i'm sure you guys will like the next chapter!


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